wow what am i doing i cant even write

Jack.

“What’s happening…” Dan asked, stifling a yawn as he sat up groggily. My screaming must have woken him up, although it wasn’t my fault, not really. I felt it itching at the back of my throat and I just couldn’t put up with it any longer. His eyes were shut tight, it was like that every time he woke up. Perhaps he had forgotten about the crisis we were in. He was quite the slow turtle, after all, so I allowed some time for him to take it all in, and recall what happened an hour or so ago. Eyes snapping open, his gaze fixed on me, and his expression changed from horrified to pity. I then realized I was wearing an unsightly expression, even though I couldn’t tell how ugly it was. It must have been one of those expressions victims wear when they’re about to get attacked by a murderer in those horror movies.

“Oh… oh, Elise, I’m so sorry.” He got up and took a step towards me as I slumped to the ground. Before I had the chance to ask why, a strange voice boomed above us. How or where it was projected, I had no idea.

“ELIZABETH STONE, DANIEL SANFORTH, WELCOME TO NURSERY ISLAND,” it spoke with such volume and an overdramatic cheer. It hurt my ears, and I wanted to cover them with my hands, to block out the voice, but something told me to keep listening. 

“You must solve each riddle placed before you, or you’ll face an ungodly death!” I shuddered. What a wonderful image to remember for the rest of my life- if I had the chance to live it.

“YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES TO SOLVE THIS RIDDLE! GO!”

And then, silence. We were left by ourselves once again.

~

“That’s it? Seriously? That’s it? We’re stranded in some psychopath’s oddly shaped room and we have to solve some stupid riddle like it’s not out of the norm? Seriously?” I yelled out in frustration as I walked back and forth. It was a habit of mine; pacing around the room was a way to calm me down and get myself focused to the best of my ability.

“Where’s the riddle… WHERE’S THE RIDDLE?!” Dan screamed over and over again. A headache was starting to develop as I continued to pace around the cylinder shaped room. How the hell was I supposed to know, anyway? So annoying… Everything was annoying. This was all just a dream, a joke, a prank. I was close to screaming. It almost sounded like a good plan, but my thoughts of doing so were interrupted when suddenly, there was a familiar scent wafting out from the walls out of the blue, as if I had somehow triggered them by panicking.

Yes, it was definitely familiar. Just where have I smelt this before? I racked my brain trying to figure out why the smell was familiar. I went back to when I was at the age of six. I recalled dropping my vanilla flavoured ice-cream, and rather than crying, I merely shrugged and scooped parts of the ice-cream onto my hands and continued licking the melting treat. That wasn’t it, though. It was close, but not it.

And then, as if I had triggered something yet again, I remembered.

An image popped up from my mind- no, a scene. From around 2 months ago, when my mother came in and left something on the table. She even lit it up… After that, whenever I stepped into the room, a scent of vanilla hit me in the face. I came home to that smell everyday for the past few months, how could I not remember? Perhaps it was due to the shock of our predicament, or something just forced me to not remember, as if something was trying to stall some time. Whatever it was, I didn’t really care. I turned towards Dan excitedly and reported my news.

“Dan… Do you smell that?” The aroma of a vanilla scented candle wax came from nowhere- no, wait. Not nowhere, it came from the walls, or wall. I walked towards the cream coloured wall, and felt the texture for the first time. Confirming my fears, I turned towards the other, swallowing before speaking.

“Dan, I don’t think this is a room.”

“What?-“

“We’re in a candle. How or why it’s hollow on the inside, I don’t know. But this wall, this scent, it all leads to one thing. I know it doesn’t make sense, but we’re going to have to solve whatever the hell this is or we’ll possibly die from, I don’t know, severe burns. We’re in a candle, Dan! Once this thing is lit, we’re going to die! And maybe, maybe I know how to solve it.” I looked at Dan and smiled triumphantly. Yes, that’s right. I was going to solve the riddle. Maybe this was a memory test, I’d tell them where we’re trapped in and they’d let us go. Ha, maybe we’d end up in our room, with the vanilla scented candle with us. I was close to hysterics, when suddenly, there was another voice. Multiple voices, actually, and it boomed above us, as if they were outside of the candle.

“Light it up!” An uneasy feeling spread inside me.

“Hurry, Jack.”

“I’ll be quick, so shut up already!”

Once again, it stopped. This time, it stopped abruptly, like it was cut off. Like the whole thing was recorded. Yeah, that had to be it.

The smile I once wore was wiped off entirely. Who was Jack? Who the hell was Jack? I didn’t know a Jack. I was wrong the whole time, this wasn’t a memory test after all. Frustrated, I slammed my fist against the wall. It was starting to get warm, maybe it was because I was raging.

Or not.

“Elise, the ceiling… they lit it. The candle. Who’s Jack? What on earth is Nursery Island, and why the hell are we in a stupid candlestick?” I looked at Dan, slightly confused as to how we ended up in this mess. He was curled up in the centre. Ha, it was quite a funny image. Cool, confident, Daniel Sanforth, curled up in the centre of a candle, mentally breaking down- I was breaking down.

“Stupid candlestick…” I muttered. Just what exactly was Nursery Island? Stupid Jack, stupid candlestick.

“Wait…” An idea was starting to form in my head. Of course! Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

“Nursery Island… It kind of reminds you of Nursery rhymes, right? Remember those Mother Goose things, back in Kindergarten? Maybe we don’t have to solve a riddle, we have to solve a rhyme.” I tried to explain as best as I could.

“Yes… That’s got to be it! But which rhyme?” 

“10 SECONDS, 9… 8…” the voice was back. I started to panic.

“Jack… Candlestick… ‘I’ll be quick’? JACK BE NIMBLE! IS THAT THE ANSWER? Was that even the name?

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick, 
Jack jump over the candlestick..! Dan, it’s- Dan?” He grabbed my arm and led me to a door. Funny, where did that door come from? Were we not in a candle?

We stepped outside, just in time before we got burned to death. Panting and coughing all at once, I started to laugh. “We made it, didn’t we? We didn’t die! Ha.. ahahaha!” Dan just shook his head sadly.

Pointing to a sign, which read “Welcome to Nursery Island. 
Congratulations for making out of the practice round. We now present to you: Challenge #1. Good luck.”

” I have a feeling that it’s not over, yet.” He said with a shaky voice.

The Beginning of an End.

“Rise and shine, sweetheart! We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry out of bed, now.” Recognizing the voice immediately, I turned from the seemingly glowing purple wall and saw that a familiar figure stood by the door, but as to when he opened it and how he did it without me noticing, I didn’t know. His dancing emerald orbs shone with determination and his blond locks were a bit crazier than usual, due to him not bothering to fix it at all. A smile was fixed on his face as he continued to urge me out of bed. Groaning, I turned back towards the wall, the sunlight once again beating down on my face; an uncomfortable feeling, it was.

“Go away, Dan. I don’t feel like going today,” I mumbled, hiding my face under the blanket. I actually woke up half an hour ago due to the sun, but I stayed put due to the very same reason. As uncomfortable as it was, at least it radiated warmth to my face, so that wasn’t so bad. The days were getting shorter and colder, the sun rarely coming up to brighten the day. 

“Oh come on, you always say that every single day.” Advancing towards me, he ripped the blanket off of me and grinned. My body temperature started decreasing and I was already starting to shiver from the lack of warmth my blanket once provided me, before it was taken away from my very own best friend. He always did this, that fella. Either he had an incredible amount of strength, considering how oddly strong I was, or I just wasn’t trying hard enough, although I quite doubt it. Pouting, I was just about to protest when he interrupted.

“You do realize that it’s 8 o’clock, right?” he said, sitting at the side of the bed, reaching over to fix the strands of hair that dangled over my face. Well, shit. That only gave me about 20 minutes left, and I was a complete mess. Normally, I would take about an hour to get ready, so 20 minutes wasn’t a lot of time to do most of the things I did during that hour.

“I hate you, Dan! Wake me up at least half an hour earlier, did you ever think of that?” I yelled, jumping up from my bed and stopping after I glanced at the clock. It read 7:13, and I slowly turned towards the other, slowly building up the little balls of rage I had stored up. He stood up and started to run out of the door, he knew things get ugly when I rage, he knows everything. 

Softening up a tad bit, I called his name once more in a demanding tone, which caused him to halt, being halfway out of the door. I walked over to him and raised a hand, which caused him to flinch slightly, until I smiled and combed through his hair. It was a mess, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at his bemused expression. He was a bit taller than I was, but I still had to tiptoe in order to reach his blond locks. 

“Sorry, couldn’t help it. It looked completely ridiculous!” I exclaimed, giggling. Blushing just the slightest bit, he smiled and ruffled my hair before heading downstairs to wait in the living room. After all, it was weird for a guy to wait in a girl’s room as they showered and changed, even if they were the best of friends. It just didn’t make sense to me. 

Sighing, my lips curved, forming a half grin as I decided what to wear today. Not that I really cared what I wore, though. For some reason, it just mattered right now. Walking towards the closet and opening both doors, I rummaged through the variety of clothing that I had, from t-shirts to tank tops to cardigans I’ve rarely worn to sweaters. I picked out a floral tank top and a purple hoodie, along with a pair of my favourite jeans, and set out towards the bathroom. With just 40 minutes left to spare, I hurriedly stripped down to nothing and turned on the water, letting it run on my body as the temperature increased to a warm, soothing feeling, just like the blanket I had on 15 minutes ago.

I like to think during the 30 minute showers that I have. Random thoughts have been floating around me, and I’ve usually swatted them away until I step into the bathroom. Ah, shower time. The time for decision making and deep thoughts, rather than applying soap on my body. I’ve thought about apples and hospitals and my parents, but this time, it was about Dan. Oh yes, Daniel Sanforth, captain of the football team, being constantly swarmed by girls. Just kidding, he was Daniel Sanforth, a quiet, disguised superhero- no, my superhero- in the class. Most people disregarded him, not that I know why. He was a friendly, good-looking smartass. However, he was just ignored by most people, and to be honest, I didn’t mind. I was afraid one day, the bright 16 year old would abandon me and turn arrogant and snobby due to the uprise in popularity. No, he wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t the type who would leave a best friend hanging. But anything was possible, really. Fame really gets to your head, and it was worrisome for me.

But not for any longer.

Exactly half an hour later, with my body scrubbed and hair washed, I turned off the water and stepped out, already freezing cold. It was like Antarctica behind the shower curtain. Desperate to warm up, I grabbed a flimsy towel and draped it over myself until I wasn’t so wimpy and started to dry my hair with it, ignoring the fact that it was cold. Exactly 10 minutes after that, with my hair blown dry and my clothes spick and span, I walked out of the bathroom and headed downstairs, when I was greeted by a strange man in a black suit. Before I had the time to scream, my mouth was covered by a suspicious looking paper with a mysterious powder containing inside it. I was starting to get dizzy, as I felt myself being carried outside and to a car. I wondered where Dan was, but I didn’t any longer because I heard his voice somewhat close to me, yet at the same time it felt distant. I heard the engine roar, and someone asking in a thick, German accent, how long it would take before we get “there”, wherever “there” was. 

Exactly an hour later, after I woke up from the unconscious state I was in, I found myself, as well as Dan, in the middle of a room. It wasn’t even a room, I discovered. There were absolutely no windows, and not a single door was found. The ceiling seemed impossible to reach, for it was too far up high.

Exactly 10 seconds later, I screamed.

“Disgusting…” I muttered, walking at a brisk pace after overhearing a bunch of… kids talking? They must have been in the sixth grade or something.

“Disgusting,” I said louder, making sure they heard. I didn’t care if they lashed out on me afterwards, I had a horrible reputation to begin with. I can’t help it. I always scare them away. I’m always the one with the terrible personality. I wasn’t like this before. Everything was perfect before it happened.

“Omaigawd, I’m totally gonna ask him out to the Halloween dance!”

“Eeeeeee! What are you gonna wear?”

It sickened me, it was disgusting. I hated them, they were so annoying.

But, then again, I was probably like that two years ago. A girl maturing and developing feelings and going crazy over everything and nothing at the same time. But it’s frustrating, isn’t it? For a second, I felt sympathy for those kids. Only for a second, though. They were still annoying, and I had to get away from them.

They reminded me too much of myself, way too much of myself back then.

~

“Hey, Catherine!” Ugh, her again. She always called me by my full name. I hated that name, I hated it. It made me sound like an old british woman. I don’t like crumpets and tea, thank you very much. Although… I do love the taste of Chai Tea Latte.

“Who are you going to ask for the dance?” she gushed in an overdramatic, squeaky voice. I didn’t really mind her, but she just got so annoying sometimes, like now, for example.
Ugh, that topic again. It made me feel like those annoying sixth graders, all girly and emotional. No, I am not like that. I am a sophisticated eighth grader. I am nothing like them. Nothing…

“My apple,” I said sarcastically, taking a bite out of it. Actually, I had someone in mind, but I didn’t dare tell her. She had a big mouth, and I had learned that the hard way.

She squealed like that one girl I passed by earlier. I raised an eyebrow. I developed that technique from my cousin.

“Okay, awesome!” she sang. “Then look no further, becauuuuuseee…” Suddenly, some guy appeared behind her. Was he crouching the whole time? Who was he anyway? I stared at him for a second. Jason, Raisin- no, that wasn’t it. He was in a couple of my classes… Right! Mason. 

He looked a bit nervous, it was a little adorable. I softened up, and smiled.

“What is it?”

~

A room. I’m in a room. The walls are light blue, and there is a surprising calm, yet sad atmosphere in this very room. He’s right behind me, I can sense him. He’s fidgeting, he always did that when he got nervous. I try to turn around, but I can’t. He speaks, and it echoes around the room. I always liked his soft, low voice. It was calming.

“Catherine,” he begins awkwardly. I love it when he says my name like that. But something’s off, something is odd this time. Although I can’t see it, at the same time, I can. I can see him ruffling his hair, trying to figure out exactly what he’s going to say. He has adorable blonde hair, I realize. How, I did not know.

“Please stop waiting for me.”

I stop breathing for a while, until I force myself to inhale the oxygen. I’m at a loss for words. Surely, this can’t be happening, right? I feel like I’ve been stabbed right through the heart. It hurts. It sucks. I turn around, and this time I am able to do that. I look at him, even though I want to look away. He looks older, and more mature. He doesn’t look any different than his self two years ago. I don’t want to look into those blue eyes, those unchanging, gentle, blue eyes always gave his emotions away. He looks hurt.

“James, I- Why?” I say. He looks away. He looks ashamed, or guilty. There’s a long pause, and I want to cry. He looks at me again, his eyes don’t change, but there’s a sincere smile on his face.

“Please move on for my sake, Catherine.”

~

“-therine. Catherine!” Mason said, shaking me. He looked worried, and blurry- wait, what? Oh. There were tears streaming down my face. I wiped them away hastily, and thought of what I had… seen.

“You looked like you spaced out, and then you started crying..!” he said frantically. He had a soft voice… A really calming one, in fact.

“Ah- sorry, I was just thinking about something…” I trailed off, and thought about everything before I responded. “Yeah… I guess going with you won’t hurt,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

“Really?!” He lit up, and grinned. He had light brown eyes the colour of his hair. I couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps it really was time to move on.

“So, what class do you have next?” I asked, and we walked in the hallways, disappearing around the corner.

~

“Oh, by the way, what were you thinking about? What made you cry?”

I thought for a bit before answering. “It’s nothing, really.”

“Is it a guy?”

“Well-“

“So that’s a Yes?” He looked a little disappointed. I chuckled.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Wha- Why? What happened?”

I stopped walking and turned to him. I tried to smile, but it ended up as a grimace.

“He went missing… two years ago, when I was in sixth grade.” I said bitterly. “He never came to that dance.” I still remembered. I didn’t really want to remember it.

He looked shocked, but smiled a sympathetic smile. He tried hard to understand for my sake. I found that admirable. He wasn’t so bad, after all.

“…How long were you waiting for him?”

I looked at the floor, half smiling. “The whole time.”

I felt a hand on my head. Was he trying to comfort me? I laughed. “I’m okay, really!”

“Sometimes we do try to forget, but the more we try, the more we think about it. And the more we think about it, the more it hurts. Rather than forgetting, be grateful that it happened. That way, it’ll be easier to move on.”

I never saw Mason after that. He never showed up at the dance, but I didn’t mind. Actually, I thought of him as my personal guardian. Heck, James might have even sent him to me! Whatever it may be, I’m just really glad I was able to let go of something that has been eating away at me for years.

If I have any troubles again, I have a pretty good feeling that he’ll show up again.

tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

The planet? That’s a toughie. It’s exactly like where I would go to first if I were on Google Earth.

I’d think of all the possibilities, like Italy, for example! I could almost smell the aroma of pizza’s and such drifting out of the shops. And Italian flags wherever I go. Oh! And the sound of numerous people talking, laughing, yelling, as well as an accordian playing in the distance.

Or France- or to be more precise, Paris! I can already imagine the towering Eiffel tower, or the Arc de Triomphe. And the sound of violins playing, as well as the sound of people conversing in low voices with a thick accent. The smell baguettes will direct me into a bakery and I can already see the different types of bread, their different smells mixing into one big heavenly aroma!

What about New York? The people crowding the streets on a daily basis, and when night falls, the whole city just lights up and it’s even more beautiful! I’m getting excited already!

But, you already know, just like on Google Earth, I’d imagine all the places I could go to; France, Germany, even Japan! But we all end up deciding on one place.

Home. Home is where the heart is! Instead of choosing a place I would most like to visit, I’ll just stay right here at my house, until the perfect opportunity arises, then I can go wherever I want to!

Ah, just so you know, I haven’t been to all of the mentioned places. I just envisioned everything. One day, I’ll be able to tell you all about each destination, I promise!

The classroom was noisy. Everyone was trying to talk over one another. It’s amazing how loud they would talk just to hear themselves. Not that I didn’t do it, though.

“Okay, turn to the first page, everyone,” the teacher spoke up. She didn’t even have to raise her voice the slightest, yet immediately, the whole room was in a hushed silence. I sometimes wondered exactly how a teacher was able to quiet down a bunch of adolescent tweens. Then again, teachers were… interesting.

She read a couple of pages, occasionally stumbling on a couple of words, or mixing up its order. Every five minutes, you would hear the crinkle of the page being turned. Not just one page, but about thirty. Everyone would turn the page at around the same time and it was like a united chorus of flipping.

Eventually, she got tired of reading and decided to pick on the unfortunate students to continue for her. Of course, she picked Jordan- or who we liked to call “Shaggy”. We called him that because of his long, surprisingly neat, light brown hair covering half of his face. It was almost impossible to see his eyes, but I’ve always imagined them a light brown or a soft blue. But anyway, if you’ve seen Scooby Doo, you’ll have a pretty good image as to what his hair looked like.

He spoke in a monotone, kind of like a robot. He didn’t really pause long enough before continuing with a new sentence, or even a new paragraph. I tried to stifle my laughter, but a giggle escaped from my throat. I looked around to see if anyone noticed, but everyone was too into the book. He stopped multiple times to ask if it was anyone else’s turn yet. I kind of had to agree with him. I needed to hear a new voice before I fell asleep to the monotone. I guess the teacher agreed as well, because she picked the next person: one of my friends.

She spoke in a normal voice. Not monotone, but not dramatic. It seemed she was into it, but not all the way, so some words weren’t expressed in the right manner. I didn’t mind, it was better than Shaggy’s, at least. Or, well, Shaggy’s wasn’t completely bad. I couldn’t take it seriously, though. Anyway, she stopped a couple of times to ask for the pronunciation of certain words. Other than that, she read it in a way that it seemed like she was just talking to a group of people.

Next was the cute boy who was just two seats away from me. He spoke in the same manner as the previous reader, but his voice just calmed me. I felt like I was in a wonderful dream with puffy clouds and green grass. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time. Maybe it was because he was the cute guy I’ve been crushing on for a while, but whatever the reason, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really like his voice. A lot. Appearance-wise, he wasn’t the best. Actually, he wasn’t really the best in general. But something about him just sparked my interest. When he read, it felt like he was reading to me. His voice boomed and bounced off the walls of the room and came back, from how I envisioned it. But at the same time, he felt so far away. But anyway, whatever he was reading, I paid no attention to. I felt myself drift off to the sound of his voice. I didn’t even know what page we were on by the time he was done.

The girl beside me read next. I haven’t talked her her much, but I’ve borrowed her fineliner for my english project, which I was very grateful for. She was surprisingly quiet. I wasn’t able to hear half of what she said, and she stumbled on words quite a lot. I didn’t really mind for a bit, because I was still in my own little world. At some point, her voice got a tad bit annoying. She was a bit slow and she pronounced some things wrong, but the next person who read was really interesting and made me almost forget about this girl.

This person, I can’t quite describe how he read it. I kind of imagined it as a sentence with a lot of pauses. Kind of. How you read. This now. It was basically like that, short and choppy. It was interesting at first, but it got boring afterwards and I ended up not paying any attention at all.

I have pretty huge standards when it comes to reading out loud. I expect the person to not only read it, but to feel it. To understand the emotions being put in every single word. I know even I won’t be able to do that, so I’ve come to the conclusion that… well,

I’m just really picky.